spider man homecoming the hero's journey

Hero's Journey

Ever notice that every blockbuster movie has the same fundamental pieces? A hero, a journey, some conflicts to muck it all up, a reward, and the hero returning home and everybody applauding his or her swag? Yeah, scholar Joseph Campbell noticed first—in 1949. He wrote The Hero with a Thousand Faces , in which he outlined the 17 stages of a mythological hero's journey.

About half a century later, Christopher Vogler condensed those stages down to 12 in an attempt to show Hollywood how every story ever written should—and, uh, does —follow Campbell's pattern. We're working with those 12 stages, so take a look. (P.S. Want more? We have an entire Online Course devoted to the hero's journey.)

Ordinary World

Peter is a skinny, wimpy, thoroughly relatable high school senior. He gets picked on by his classmates, he has a BFF named Harry, and he's madly in love with his neighbor, Mary Jane. He lives with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May in Queens. They're kind of corny, but they're loving surrogate parents for Pete.

Call to Adventure

On a field trip to the Columbia University science department, Peter suffers a bite from a genetically engineered super spider.

Okay, "suffers" is probably too harsh a word here since that gnarly looking spider bite gives Peter a set of rad superpowers: enhanced strength and speed, the ability to crawl up walls, web shooters, and precognition. Peter is physically transformed into a buff dude capable of stopping the bullies that once picked on him. He's capable of stopping criminals, too.

Refusal of the Call

Peter refuses to use his enhanced abilities to stop a robber who holds up the wrestling tournament Peter just participated in. In this moment, he's called to use his superpowers for good; when he lets the robber go, he essentially says, "Thanks, but no thanks."

And his uncle winds up dead as a result. Whoops.

Meeting the Mentor

On graduation day, when Peter is missing Uncle Ben something fierce, Aunt May reminds Peter that Uncle Ben loved him and knew he was destined to do great things. In effect, she represents both herself and Ben now, mentoring Peter by proxy and reminding him of his values and what he's fighting for.

Crossing the Threshold

Peter gives Spider-Man's costume a much-needed upgrade, and Spider-Man hits the streets of New York, stopping criminals left and right. Gone is the bitter teen who refused to stop a thief.

Public opinion about Spidey and his crime-fighting motives are mixed, but he's officially made his presence known to the denizens of New York City…including a certain glider-riding supervillain.

Tests, Allies, Enemies

Peter's chief allies are his best friend, Harry, and his oldest friend, Mary Jane, with whom he's also secretly in love. The whole situation is complicated by the fact that once Peter and Harry become roommates after high school, Harry and Mary Jane start dating. Sorry, Pete.

Peter's #1 enemy, as Spider-Man, is the Green Goblin. Gobby firmly believes that people are terrible: they'll never appreciate the sacrifices you make; all they'll do is betray you. The Green Goblin proposes that he and Spidey team up and become allies, presumably in chaos and destruction, fueled by their bitterness over being taken for granted by the world.

Spider-Man also faces minor opposition from J. Jonah Jameson, the editor-in-chief of the Daily Bugle who insists that Spider-Man is a public menace, even while everybody's favorite wall-crawler is out there stopping burglaries and saving babies.

Throughout his journey, Spider-Man faces several tests. The first big one is stopping the Green Goblin when he crashes Oscorp's World Unity Festival. He's too late to stop Gobby from blowing up Oscorp's board, but he saves Mary Jane's life, as well as the lives of countless ordinary citizens.

Later, the Green Goblin shows up at the Daily Bugle and hits Spider-Man with knockout gas. He doesn't kill him; he takes him to a quiet, little out-of-the-way place and proposes that they team up. Next, the Green Goblin lures Spider-Man into a burning building. When Spider-Man formally declines his offer to be partners, he and the Green Goblin throw down again.

After a while, the Green Goblin starts to feel less like Spider-Man's nemesis and more like his stalker.

Approach to the Inmost Cave

This is where our hero prepares for his biggest challenge. In Spider-Man , it's also where our hero eats turkey. At Thanksgiving dinner, when Norman spots the cut on Peter's arm, he realizes his son's pal is his nemesis, Spider-Man.

The stakes have officially been raised. Now that Norman and the Green Goblin know Spidey's secret identity, they know how to focus their attack for maximum impact.

When Aunt May is attacked, Peter faces his greatest fear. With his identity exposed, his loved ones are no longer safe. At least the Green Goblin doesn't know that he loves Mary Jane. Yet.

Reward (Seizing the Sword)

Peter and M.J. have an intimate heart-to-heart in Aunt May's hospital room as Aunt May, Peter's only family, rests—and eavesdrops—peacefully. Peter tells M.J. what he told Spider-Man about her (i.e., that she's, like, the most awesome girl ever), and Mary Jane and Peter hold hands. Aww.

The Road Back

The Green Goblin kidnaps Mary Jane and holds her hostage on top of the Queensboro Bridge. See, Harry, not knowing what he was doing, told Norman that Peter is in love with M.J., which means the Green Goblin knows exactly how to get to Spider-Man. Whoops.

Spider-Man comes to M.J.'s aid and rescues her. He also saves a tramway car full of innocent kids in the process after Gobby tries to force Spider-Man to choose between the two. Spider-Man: all about that multitasking.

Resurrection

The resurrection is where the hero returns order to the world and ends the conflict. Here, it's when Spider-Man defeats the Green Goblin once and for all. Technically, we suppose the Green Goblin kind of defeats himself since he's impaled by his own glider after Spider-Man dodges it, but still.

With the Green Goblin gone, Spider-Man/Peter can breathe easier. We're sure that pesky little matter of Harry vowing to avenge his father's death will just resolve itself, right? Right?

Return with the Elixir

Peter returns to his ordinary world a changed man. When M.J. confesses her love for him (finally), he tells her he'll always be her friend. He tells the audience that he'll never forget Uncle Ben's words—"with great power comes great responsibility"—and that he's got a job to do because he's Spider-Man.

It's his gift because he can stop crime and save lives, and it's his curse because he can't live happily ever after with M.J., 2.5 spider-children, and a white picket fence.

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Spider-Man: Homecoming

• Peter Parker balances his life as an ordinary high school student in Queens with his superhero alter-ego Spider-Man, and finds himself on the trail of a new menace prowling the skies of New York City.
• A young Peter Parker/Spider-Man begins to navigate his newfound identity as web-slinging superhero Spider-Man. Thrilled by his experience with the Avengers, Peter returns home, where he lives with his Aunt May, under the watchful eye of his new mentor Tony Stark. Peter tries to fall back into his normal daily routine--distracted by thoughts of proving himself to be more than just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man--but when the Vulture emerges as a new villain, everything that Peter holds most important will be threatened. — Flick Direct
• Peter Parker, The Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, is patiently waiting for Tony Stark to give him a mission where he can help out as best as he can manage. Balancing everyday life as Peter Parker alongside being Spider-Man is a daunting task for The Wall Crawler and it starts taking its toll when Parker encounters a gang of underground thugs selling Chitauri-based weapons for a mysterious villain known as The Vulture. — Johnny
• In the aftermath of Captain America: Civil War (2016) , Peter Parker, a 15-year-old sophomore and Tony Stark's protégé, finds himself back in Queens, New York trying to juggle high school and his superhero alter-ego. As Peter is on pins and needles waiting for his mentor to give him a chance to prove his mettle and become an official Avenger, Stark chooses to keep Peter on a short leash instead, fearful that the boy might bite off more than he can chew. And then, the Vulture, a winged super-criminal brandishing advanced Chitauri weaponry, emerges. Of course, Parker sees his arrival as a golden opportunity to demonstrate that he has what it takes to be part of the Earth's mightiest team of superheroes. But is Spider-Man ready to be more than the neighborhood's friendly, web-slinging defender? — Nick Riganas
• Following the Battle of New York, Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) and his salvage company are contracted to clean up the city, but their operation is taken over by the Department of Damage Control (D.O.D.C.), a partnership between Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and the U.S. government headed by Anne Marie Hoag (Tyne Daly). This puts Toomes out of commission as he loses the contract. Toomes had invested a large amount of money in the business. Enraged at being driven out of business, Toomes persuades his employees to keep the Chitauri technology they have already scavenged and use it to create and sell advanced weapons. Among the salvaged materials are power sources for the alien weapons, which Toomes figures out to use in new and advanced Earth weapons. Eight years later, Toomes has a thriving illegal weapons business based on the Chitauri technology. Toomes has designed a flying, armored suit for himself, which he uses to salvage for more alien parts. Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is drafted into the Avengers by Stark to help with an internal dispute (in the events of Civil War). After the events in Berlin, Peter resumes his studies at the Midtown School of Science and Technology, while he waits for a formal invitation from Stark to join the Avengers initiative. 2 months later Stark tells him he is not yet ready to become a full Avenger. May Parker (Marisa Tomei) is Peter's aunt. Harold "Happy" Hogan (Jon Favreau) is Stark's head of security and it "looking after" Parker. Parker quits his school's academic decathlon team to spend more time focusing on his crime-fighting activities as Spider-Man. Parker has a crush on Liz, who is on the Decathlon team, while school tomboy Michelle believes Peter is a loser for spying on Liz. One night, after preventing criminals from robbing an ATM with their advanced weapons from Toomes, Parker returns to his Queens apartment where his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) discovers his secret identity. Peter informs Happy about criminals he encountered with advanced alien weapons, but Happy dismisses it as petty crime and tells Peter to stay away from crime fighting. Happy also informs Peter that Stark sold the Stark tower and the whole Avengers team is moving upstate. On another night, Peter notices big blasts happening at a distance and goes to investigate. Parker comes across Toomes' associates Jackson Brice / Shocker (Logan Marshall-Green) and Herman Schultz (Bokeem Woodbine) selling weapons to local criminal Aaron Davis (Donald Glover). Parker saves Davis, and then pursues those criminals across the city. Toomes arrives on his winged suit, after being alerted by Herman. Peter is caught by Toomes and dropped in a lake, nearly drowning after becoming tangled in a parachute built into his suit. He is rescued by Stark, who is monitoring the Spider-Man suit he gave Parker and warns him against further involvement with the criminals. Stark was speaking to Peter via a drone suit. After the drone suit leaves, Peter finds the alien technology weapons nearby. Toomes is mad at Brice for firing the weapons in the open, but Brice simply doesn't care. Toomes threatens to fire Brice, but Brice says that he can expose Toomes and his entire illegal weapons operation to the DODC and to the Avengers. Toomes accidentally kills Brice with one of their weapons, and Schultz becomes the new Shocker. Parker and Ned study the weapon left behind by Brice, removing its power core. Parker finds that Schultz has tracked the weapon to his school, where Ned and he were conducting experiments on it. Peter follows Schultz and puts a tracking device on his. When a tracking device on Schultz leads to Maryland, Parker rejoins the decathlon team and accompanies them to Washington, D.C. for their national tournament. Ned and Parker disable the tracker Stark implanted in the Spider-Man suit and unlock its advanced features. Peter tracks down Schultz and finds that he is tracking a DODC truck for Toomes. Parker tries to stop Toomes from stealing weapons from a D.O.D.C. truck, but is trapped inside the truck, causing him to miss the decathlon tournament. When he discovers that the power core is an unstable Chitauri grenade (which Ned has been carrying in his back pack ever since they experimented on the weapon in school), Parker races to the Washington Monument where the core explodes (the core was activated after it passes through an x-ray scanning machine) and traps Ned and their friends in an elevator. Evading local authorities, Parker saves his friends, including his fellow classmate and crush Liz (Laura Harrier). Peter's future girlfriend Michelle "MJ" Jones (Zendaya) is also part of the academic decathlon team that Peter joined in order to get to DC. Returning to New York City, Parker analyzes his video (recorded by his suit) and identifies Davis. Peter believes that apprehending the criminals will surely get Stark to invite Peter to the Avengers and he wants that at all costs. Peter tracks & persuades Davis to reveal Toomes' whereabouts. Aboard the Staten Island Ferry, Parker captures Toomes' new buyer Mac Gargan (Michael Mando), but Toomes escapes, and a malfunctioning weapon tears the ferry in half. Stark helps Parker save the passengers before admonishing him for his recklessness and taking away his suit. Parker returns to his high school life, and eventually asks Liz to go to the homecoming dance with him. On the night of the dance, Parker learns that Liz is Toomes' daughter. Deducing Parker's secret identity, Toomes threatens retaliation if he interferes with his plans. During the dance, Parker realizes Toomes is planning to hijack a D.O.D.C. plane transporting weapons from Avengers Tower to the team's new headquarters. He dons his old homemade Spider-Man suit and races to Toomes' lair. He is first ambushed by Schultz but defeats him with the help of Ned. At the lair, Toomes destroys the building's support beams and leaves Parker to die. Parker escapes the rubble and intercepts the plane, steering it to crash on the beach near Coney Island. He and Toomes continue fighting, ending with Parker saving Toomes' life after some unstable material explodes, and leaving him for the police along with the plane's cargo. After her father's arrest, Liz moves away, and Parker declines an invitation from Stark to join the Avengers full-time. Stark returns Parker's suit, which he puts on at his apartment just as his Aunt May walks in. In a mid-credits scene, an incarcerated Gargan approaches Toomes in prison. Gargan has heard that Toomes knows Spider-Man's real identity, but Toomes denies this.

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The Marvel Movies Debrief: Spider-Man: Homecoming Recap, Legacy, and MCU Connections

Tom Holland's first solo outing as Spidey is a very connected MCU movie, with its own intimate stakes...

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“A Film by Peter Parker”

Spider-Man: Homecoming , just like its hero in one of the film’s most memorable moments, had a lot of weight on its shoulders. It’s the 16th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe  and a direct sequel to one of its most popular entries (see: Captain America: Civil War ). Plus, it’s the second big-screen Spidey reboot in recent memory, with Tom Holland getting his first full-length chance to follow in the red and blue footprints of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.

The flick kicks off on a bit of a wobble, with a fairly unremarkable introduction for Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes that’s followed quickly by a continuity flab that claims this 2017 movie takes place “Eight Years Later” than 2012’s Avengers Assemble. But once that’s out of the way, the film finds its footing: composer Michael Giacchino’s wonderful riff on the Spider-Man cartoon theme song plays over the Marvel Studios logo, and then we cut into Peter’s home video recap of Captain America: Civil War .

Since Civil War handled the heavy lifting of introducing Tom Holland and establishing that this Spidey already has his powers , his suit and some tough times in his rearview mirror, Homecoming is freed up to take a more naturalistic approach to the character. After the phone footage of Peter’s airport battle with the Avengers, Tony Stark and Happy Hogan dump this wall-crawler in Queens, and director Jon Watts takes its foot right off the pedal.

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From here, we see Peter struggling with life as a friendly neighborhood hero: his “Stark Internship” is clashing with his academic decathlon commitments, and school bully Flash Thompson isn’t helping.

Buy Spider-Man: Homecoming on Blu-ray Here

Meanwhile, all Pete wants to do is put on his Spidey suit and find some action, even if that action ends up being “grand theft bicycle” and helping old ladies cross the road in exchange for a churro. Ned drops his LEGO Death Star when he spots Pete in his Spidey suit, and an oblivious Aunt May takes her nephew out for a larb-heavy dinner. It’s a neat, measured start to the film, but, of course, these low-key heroics can’t last for long.

read more: Spider-Man Homecoing – Who Is Vulture?

The only decent crime in Peter’s neighborhood is a high-tech bank robbery (“I’m starting to think you’re not the Avengers!”) which provides a solid early action scene and puts our wall-crawling hero on a collision course with the Vulture and his alien-gear-wielding criminal gang. As the film builds to this confrontation, Jon Watts and the film’s other five screenwriters continue to showcase a realistic underbelly to the MCU – this is a lower echelon that lives in the shadows of Avengers Tower, with Donald Glover’s Aaron Davis providing a perfect example of that. This low-level crook wants a normal gun to scare someone with – he doesn’t want to “send them back in time” with Adrian Toomes’ OTT tech.

Peter plants a tracker on Toomes’ gang and rejoins the Academic Decathlon team to hitch a ride to Washington D.C. While on the trip, he sneaks off repeatedly to investigate the baddies, providing another example of the superhero/life balance that is so vital to Spidey in the comics. Peter fails in a lot of his heroic attempts, making him one of the most relatable heroes in the MCU, and ends up getting locked in the Damage Control deep storage unit overnight. Entrapped, Holland gets a chance to shine and Peter has an opportunity to chat with “suit lady” and learn more about his Stark-made suit.

read more: How Spider-Man Made It Into The MCU

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The action starts to ramp up at this point, with the Washington Monument rescue contrasting an iconic landmark with intimate personal stakes. The daylight heroics here are a nice alternative to the grim battles that dominate modern superhero films, harking back to the days of Christopher Reeve in the Superman suit saving ordinary people. This and the Staten Island Ferry sequence are probably tied as the film’s best action scene, with the climactic invisible plane battle between Spidey and Vulture lacking that personal touch by comparison.

Although the final battle isn’t the film’s best, the second half of Homecoming does pack in some great moments: Spidey’s naff interrogation of Glover’s Aaron Davis (“I like bread”), numerous Iron Men showing up to save the ferry, the sweet montage of May and Peter preparing for the dance, Ned’s moment as “the guy in the chair,” and the fun final frame where Aunt May sees Peter in the suit. All in all, this is a confident solo debut for Spidey in the MCU, which ties into the wider universe whilst also finding its own smaller segment to play in. And we haven’t even mentioned a couple of the best moments…

Standout scene(s): After disappointing Tony Stark at the ferry, Peter is back in his homemade Spider-Man suit when he faces off with Vulture. This results in Peter being buried under rubble, crushed and crying, struggling to summon the Spidey strength, shouting at himself to try and find a way out. (“Come on, Spider-Man!”) This scene is epically emotional but essentially intimate, and it has that great shot of Peter seeing his half-Spidey reflection in a puddle. It would be the best moment in almost any other superhero film.

read more: Inside The Making of Into The Spider-Verse

But Spider-Man: Homecoming has a trump card up its sleeve – the unforgettable scene where Pete goes to pick up Liz and finds out that her dad is the Vulture. The moment when Toomes opens the door packed a huge shock at the time, and Keaton is properly menacing in the resultant awkward ride. Holland, again proving that he can go toe-to-toe with any star, brings so much nervous energy to the scene and helps to make it a classic.

Best quip: This is a film with a very prominent funny bone, from the banter between Peter and Stark (“It’s not a hug, I’m just grabbing the door for you”) all the way down the school news bulletins that are edited like awkward YouTube videos (“I couldn’t bear to lose a student on a field trip… again.”) Zendaya is frequently funny, too. The most memorable laugh in the film could be Chris Evans’ cameos in the gym video (“I’m pretty sure this guy’s a war criminal now”) and the detention video (“So, you got detention. You screwed up.”) There’s a reason that the second one of those became a hugely popular meme.

read more: 25 Spider-Man Villians We Want To See In The Movies

First appearances:  There are lots of obvious ones here – like all of Peter’s school friends and Adrian Toomes’ entire gang, which features two versions of the Shocker and one Tinkerer – but there are some significant additions to the MCU going on in the background. Donald Glover’s Aaron Davis shares a name with The Prowler, a villain from the comics, and he even refers to his nephew – who is, in the comics, Miles Morales. Since Homecoming came out, we saw a version of Aaron and Miles’ story play out in Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse . Additionally, Tony Revolori plays Flash Thompson, Peter’s school bully, who plays host to the Venom symbiote for quite some time in the comics.

So long, farewell: The stakes being so refreshingly low, and the fact that we skipped over the Uncle Ben story, means that nobody major dies in this film. The only real death of note is when Toomes accidentally incinerates Jackson Brice’s version of the Shocker . Toomes thought he was using the anti-gravity gun, but it turned out to be a disintegration gun that reduced his lackey to a pile of dust on the floor. Thanos would be proud.

read more: Spider-Man Far From Home – Who Is Mysterio?

It’s all connected:  It really is all connected in this case, because Spider-Man: Homecoming has the kind of MCU-adjacent connections that the early seasons of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D . could only dream about. After kicking off with Toomes collecting Chitarui rubble and Peter recapping Civil War , the film’s references counter doesn’t really let up.

As well as the Chitaru tech from Avengers Assemble , Toomes’ gang has gear scavenged from Lagos ( Civil War ), the Triskellion ( Winter Soldier ) and Sokovia ( Avengers: Age Of Ultron ). Shocker’s arm is even established as being built with a “sub-Ultron arm,” and Peter also finds an Ultron head in the Damage Control vault.

read more: The full schedule of upcoming Marvel movies

Happy Hogan produces an engagement ring from his pocket when Tony’s press conference plans go awry, saying, “I’ve been carrying this since 2008!” This, of course, is the year that the original Iron Man came out. Tony obviously popped the question shortly after the scene ended, because he and Pepper are engaged in Infinity War .

Credit check:  The mid-credits scene shows Mac Gargan (who becomes the Scorpion in the comics) meeting up with Toomes in prison, asking the Vulture about Spidey’s identity. “If I knew who he was,” Toomes improvises, “he’d already be dead.” Then, at the very end of the film’s credits, Chris Evans cameos again, with Captain America offering some words of wisdom on the topic of patience. “You wonder why you waited so long for something so disappointing…”

What are your thoughts on Spider-Man: Homecoming? Have we missed your favorite moment or reference? Let us know in the comments below…

Rob Leane | @robleane

Rob Leane has written for this loveable website for over five years. In his spare time, he's caught hundreds of Pokémon and sunk days of his…

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Review: Spider-Man: Homecoming is the best superhero movie of 2017

Spider-Man: Homecoming gets Peter Parker right. That’s what makes it so good. 

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Over the past decade, Spider-Man’s famous credo — “with great power comes great responsibility” — could very well apply to Sony, the studio that owns the film rights to Marvel’s web-slinging superhero.

Despite Spider-Man’s massive, multigenerational fan base, Sony has struggled to give the legendary character an equally legendary story on the big screen. Spider-Man (2002) and Spider-Man 2 (2004) were the makings of a solid franchise, but then 2007’s Spider-Man 3 seemed to cast a dark spell over the superhero’s cinematic legacy. Not only was the movie a sour end to a once-promising trilogy, but it was followed by an underwhelming, too-soon reboot in 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man , an aggressively mediocre sequel to said reboot, and then a series of delays and uncertainty from the studio in response to that sequel’s disappointing box office haul .

The problem with the middling Spider-Man films is that they failed to make Peter Parker feel like Peter Parker. They either strayed too far from the spirit of the character, à la Spider-Man 3 , or misunderstood it altogether, resulting in movies that felt hollow or inconsequential.

Patient Spider-Man fans have been waiting 10 years for a story that’s worthy of Spider-Man’s legacy — one that’s as much about the heart and soul of its hero as it is about slinging and swinging through the city sky. And with Spider-Man: Homecoming , which brings Marvel Studios back into the Spider-Man fold as a co-producer with Sony, that story is finally here.

The movie is a soaring, fearless teenage dream. And it feels so great to be able to say: Welcome home, Spidey.

Spider-Man: Homecoming isn’t really a story about a man, but about the journey toward becoming an adult

Within the pop culture sphere, Spider-Man’s origin story has become an American superhero nativity scene of sorts. Even if you haven’t read any Spider-Man comics or seen any Spider-Man movies, you likely know that a radioactive spider bites Peter Parker, giving him superpowers — strength, the ability to cling to walls, a sixth sense, etc. — and that Peter’s beloved Uncle Ben dies because Peter didn’t stop a criminal when he had the chance. Except for Batman, whose story is rooted in the deaths of his parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne, there is no other superhero whose beginnings are as well-known as Peter Parker’s/Spider-Man’s.

It’s curious and savvy, then, that Spider-Man: Homecoming writer-director Jon Watts and co-writers Jonathan Goldstein , John Francis Daley , Christopher Ford , Chris McKenna , and Erik Sommers eschew all of those basic details.

We don’t see Peter Parker ( Tom Holland ) get bitten. There aren’t any references to Uncle Ben. We don’t even know the full extent of Peter’s powers; the limits of his strength, durability, “Spider-Sense,” and agility are never fully explained.

What Homecoming does show us is a Peter Parker who’s just an underappreciated high school sophomore with a superhero secret identity, and who’s itching to get back into action after taking on Captain America and the rest of the Avengers in last year’s Captain America: Civil War but can’t tell a soul about it.

Tweaking the tension that surrounds his protagonist allows Watts to delve into new territory with the character.

Instead of holding our breaths for that “Uncle Ben” moment, we get to experience and understand the conflict at Spider-Man’s core: having to balance all the anxieties and uncertainties of being a teen while also knowing the thrilling power of being a superhero.

Being a superhero is the one thing that makes Peter happy, but it also eats up his time, interfering with his status on Midtown High’s Academic Decathlon team and fracturing his friendships.

He and his best friend Ned ( Jacob Batalon ) suddenly don’t have time to mess around with their Star Wars toys. It kills him that he can’t get Liz ( Laura Harrier ), the girl of his dreams, to notice him even though she’s in love with Spider-Man. And he’s always lying to his Aunt May ( Marisa Tomei ) about his “internship” at Stark Enterprises.

Tom Holland masterfully channels Peter’s teenage angst, which could easily come off as melodramatic or superficial, and infuses it with respect. Watts’s artful work makes you realize how often we don’t take teenagers’ anxieties, joys, and fears seriously. Peter’s life in Homecoming is a frustrating, jagged journey toward figuring out what kind of person he is.

Holland can be effortlessly likable; he proved as much in Civil War . What’s more impressive in Homecoming is how adept he is at doing the tougher stuff too. He flashes teenage stubbornness in defying Iron Man (and everyone who seems to know better). But he also sheds tears, and your heart hurts with him, giving Peter Parker an aching vulnerability that we don’t see in most superheroes.

This movie marks a big a moment for Holland, who, for the first time in his career, has to carry a gigantic blockbuster and does so handily. As Peter, he will remind you of your childhood best friend and, as the movie unfurls, become a hero to look up to. Quite simply, Homecoming proves that Holland is a star and the best Spider-Man we’ve seen onscreen.

Homecoming brings Spider-Man’s credo of “with great power comes great responsibility” to life

The strange thing about Spider-Man’s “with great power…” catchphrase is that in the comic book, no one says it out loud (it’s also been slightly tweaked/abbreviated throughout the years). It appears in Amazing Fantasy No. 15, the very first Marvel comic book appearance of Peter Parker. In that comic, written by Stan Lee and drawn by artist Steve Ditko, the saying shows up on the last page, in a yellow box, long after their story has made it very clear that if Peter Parker had done his duty, his uncle would still be alive.

Homecoming keeps that tradition of not giving us a “catchphrase” moment, opting instead to show us what this idea looks like in practice.

We see Peter soar through the sky with all these gizmos in his new suit, and then completely bork the landing. We see him put people in danger because of teenage idiocy. He saves the day, often in thrilling, stunning fashion — but half the time, the reason he has to come to the rescue is that he caused a problem in the first place.

The balance of power and responsibility is not just present in Peter’s story, either.

Michael Keaton is chilling as Adrian Toomes, a struggling contractor who, in Homecoming ’s world of gods and monsters, has found a way to carve out his own pocket of power. Keaton knows how to flash his own brand of sinister, sharpening the pricks in his voice and conveying heat in his eyes. But the compelling thing about Toomes is that, like a lot the very best comic villains, he’s impossibly human — if he’d had even one lucky break, it seems, he wouldn’t be on this path.

Toomes and Peter’s clashes are gorgeous flourishes of superhuman physics, power versus agility, speed versus brutality, and opposing worldviews: hardened jadedness versus restless optimism.

And Watts’s film is a visual treat; to be fair, many Marvel blockbusters are. But really, the magic is in the heart and soul given to Peter, to the villainous Toomes, and to Peter’s teenage spirit. Past Spider-Man films have failed to give us a Peter Parker worth rooting for, worth protecting, worth looking up to. But in Watts’s and Holland’s hands, for the first time in a decade, Spider-Man: Homecoming gives a version of everyone’s favorite neighborhood web slinger who feels as amazing as he was created to be.

Spider-Man: Homecoming is in theaters across the country on July 7. Screenings begin a night earlier.

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Spider-Man: Homecoming

Where to watch.

Watch Spider-Man: Homecoming with a subscription on Disney+, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

What to Know

Spider-Man: Homecoming does whatever a second reboot can, delivering a colorful, fun adventure that fits snugly in the sprawling MCU without getting bogged down in franchise-building.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Tom Holland

Peter Parker

Michael Keaton

Adrian Toomes

Robert Downey Jr.

Marisa Tomei

Jon Favreau

Happy Hogan

Movie Clips

More like this, movie news & guides, this movie is featured in the following articles..

• Amy Pascal/Producer
• Jonathan Goldstein/Writer
• John Francis Daley/Writer
• Jon Watts/Writer
• Christopher Ford/Writer
• Chris McKenna/Writer
• Erik Sommers/Writer
• Marvel Studios
• Peter Parker (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Stark Industries (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Harold Hogan (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Anthony Stark (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Virginia Potts (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Edward Leeds (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Elizabeth Allan (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Maybelle Parker (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Bestman Salvage (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Adrian Toomes (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Phineas Mason (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Herman Schultz (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Jackson Brice (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Randy Vale (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• MacDonald Gargan (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Avengers (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Bruce Banner (Earth-199999)/Minor Appearances
• Thor Odinson (Earth-199999)/Minor Appearances
• Clinton Barton (Earth-199999)/Minor Appearances
• Steven Rogers (Earth-199999)/Minor Appearances
• Natalia Romanoff (Earth-199999)/Minor Appearances
• James Rhodes (Earth-199999)/Minor Appearances
• Vision (Earth-199999)/Mentions
• United States Department of Damage Control (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Anne Marie Hoag (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• T'Challa (Earth-199999)/Minor Appearances
• Scott Lang (Earth-199999)/Minor Appearances
• Eugene Thompson (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Elizabeth Brant (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Jason Ionello (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Michelle Jones (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Charles Murphy (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Abraham Brown (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Cindy Moon (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Sally Avril (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Seymour O'Reilly (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Brian McKeever (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Howard Stark (Earth-199999)/Minor Appearances
• Principal Morita (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Monica Warren (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Mr. Cobbwell (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Roger Harrington (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Andre Wilson (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Barry Hapgood (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Klev (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Mr. Delmar (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Stan Lee (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Aaron Davis (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Ultron (Earth-199999)/Mentions
• Miles Morales (Earth-199999)/Mentions
• F.R.I.D.A.Y. (Earth-199999)/Minor Appearances
• Karen (A.I.) (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Radioactive Spider (Earth-199999)/Mentions
• Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Odin Borson (Earth-199999)/Mentions
• Federal Bureau of Investigation (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Howling Commandos (Earth-199999)/Minor Appearances
• James Morita (Earth-199999)/Minor Appearances
• Timothy Dugan (Earth-199999)/Minor Appearances
• James Barnes (Earth-199999)/Minor Appearances
• Jacques Dernier (Earth-199999)/Minor Appearances
• James Montgomery Falsworth (Earth-199999)/Minor Appearances
• Gabriel Jones (Earth-199999)/Minor Appearances
• Doris Toomes (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• New York City Police Department (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• National Security Agency (Earth-199999)/Mentions
• Albert Einstein (Earth-199999)/Minor Appearances
• Humans (Homo sapiens)/Appearances
• Asgardians/Minor Appearances
• Chitauri/Mentions
• Leviathans (Chitauri)/Minor Appearances
• Earth-199999/Appearances
• Earth/Appearances
• North America/Appearances
• United States of America/Appearances
• New York (State)/Appearances
• New York City/Appearances
• Manhattan/Appearances
• Park Avenue/Appearances
• Stark Tower/Appearances
• 46th Street/Mentions
• Queens/Appearances
• Midtown High School/Appearances
• Delmar's Deli-Grocery/Appearances
• 21st Street/Appearances
• Aunt May's House/Appearances
• Queens Boulevard/Mentions
• 48th Street/Appearances
• Jackson Avenue/Appearances
• Brooklyn/Appearances
• Coney Island/Appearances
• Staten Island/Appearances
• Upper New York Bay/Appearances
• Liberty Island/Appearances
• Statue of Liberty/Appearances
• New Avengers Facility/Appearances
• Washington, D.C./Appearances
• Triskelion (New York City)/Mentions
• National Mall/Appearances
• Washington Monument/Appearances
• New Jersey (State)/Mentions
• Maryland (State)/Appearances
• Baltimore/Mentions
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Mentions
• Fort Sumter/Mentions
• Oregon (State)/Mentions
• Canada/Mentions
• Asia/Appearances
• India/Appearances
• Europe/Minor Appearances
• Germany/Minor Appearances
• Schkeuditz/Minor Appearances
• Leipzig/Halle Airport/Minor Appearances
• Sokovia/Mentions
• Lagos/Mentions
• Saturn (Planet)/Mentions
• Asgard (Realm)/Mentions
• Web-Shooters/Appearances
• Spider-Man's Suit/Appearances
• Spider-Man's Utility Belt/Appearances
• Iron Man Armor MK XLVI (Earth-199999)/Minor Appearances
• Ant-Man's Suit/Minor Appearances
• Ant-Man's Helmet/Minor Appearances
• Iron Man Armor MK XLVII (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Arc Reactor/Appearances
• Tony Stark's Sunglasses/Appearances
• Captain America's Uniform/Minor Appearances
• Captain America's Shield/Minor Appearances
• Vulture's Wings/Appearances
• Matter Phase Shifter/Appearances
• Chitauri Energy Core/Appearances
• Anti-Gravity Gun/Appearances
• Dum-E/Appearances
• Sokovia Accords/Mentions
• Shocker's Vibro-Shock Gauntlets/Appearances
• Vibranium/Mentions
• Spider-Tracer/Appearances
• Spider-Tracer-Tracker/Appearances
• Spider-Man's Spider-Signal/Appearances
• Ultron Drones/Minor Appearances
• Megingjord/Mentions
• Iron Man Armor MK XLVIII (Earth-199999)/Mentions
• Captain America's Shield/Mentions
• Iron Man Armor MK XLII (Earth-199999)/Appearances
• Iron Spider Armor/Appearances
• Executive Order 396-B/Mentions
• Quinjet/Appearances
• Sony Pictures Entertainment

Spider-Man: Homecoming

• View history
• 1 Appearances
• 6.1 Alternate Posters
• 6.2 Other Images
• 6.3.1 Trailers
• 6.3.2 Teasers
• 6.3.3 Featurettes
• 8.1 References

Appearances

Featured Characters:

• ⏴   Spider-Man (Peter Parker)   ⏵

Supporting Characters:

• ⏴   Happy Hogan   ⏵
• ⏴   Iron Man (Tony Stark)   ⏵
• ⏴   Pepper Potts   ⏵ (Cameo)
• Ned Leeds   ⏵ (First appearance)
• Liz Allan (First appearance)
• ⏴   May Parker   ⏵

Antagonists:

• Vulture (Adrian Toomes)   ⏵ (First appearance)
• Tinkerer (Phineas Mason) (First appearance)
• Shocker (Herman Schultz) (First appearance)
• Shocker (Jackson Brice) (First appearance; dies)
• Randy (First appearance)
• Numerous unnamed members
• Mac Gargan (First appearance)

Other Characters:

• Hulk (Dr. Bruce Banner) (Drawing)
• Thor (Drawing)
• Hawkeye (Clint Barton) (Drawing)
• Captain America (Steve Rogers) (Only on screen as a static image or video record)
• Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff) (Only on screen as a static image or video record)
• War Machine (Col. James "Rhodey" Rhodes) (Only on screen as a static image or video record)
• Vision (Mentioned)
• Anne Marie Hoag (First appearance)
• Agent Foster (First appearance)
• Black Panther (King T'Challa) (Only on screen as a static image or video record)
• Ant-Man (Scott Lang) (Only on screen as a static image or video record)
• Flash Thompson   ⏵ (First appearance)
• Betty Brant   ⏵ (First appearance)
• Jason Ionello   ⏵ (First appearance)
• Michelle "MJ" Jones   ⏵ (First appearance)
• Charles (First appearance)
• Abe (First appearance)
• Cindy   ⏵ (First appearance)
• Sally   ⏵ (First appearance)
• Seymour (First appearance)
• Tiny McKeever   ⏵ (First appearance)
• Howard Stark (Drawing)
• Principal Morita (First appearance)
• Ms. Warren (First appearance)
• Mr. Cobbwell (First appearance)
• ⏴   Mr. Harrington   ⏵ (Name revealed)
• Coach Wilson   ⏵ (First appearance)
• Mr. Hapgood (First appearance)
• Niels Bohr (Mentioned)
• Klev   ⏵ (First appearance)
• Mr. Delmar (First appearance)
• Murph the Cat (First appearance)
• Marjorie (First appearance)
• King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Photo)
• Aaron Davis   ⏵ (First appearance)
• Ultron (Mentioned)
• Ganesha (Mentioned)
• Miles Morales (Mentioned) (Unnamed)
• Frank Sinatra (Mentioned)
• F.R.I.D.A.Y. (Voice only)
• Suit Lady / Karen (First appearance)
• Radioactive Spider (Mentioned)
• Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia
• District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department (First appearance)
• Bon Jovi (Mentioned)
• Odin (Mentioned)
• Ned Leeds' mother (Mentioned)
• Jim Morita (Photo)
• Dum-Dum Dugan (Photo)
• Bucky Barnes (Photo)
• Jacques Dernier (Photo)
• James Montgomery Falsworth (Photo)
• Gabe Jones (Photo)
• Doris Toomes (First appearance)
• New York City Police Department
• Flash Thompson's father (Mentioned)
• Bruce Springsteen (Mentioned)
• NSA (Mentioned)
• Albert Einstein (Photo)

Races and Species:

• Asgardians (Drawing)
• Chitauri (Mentioned)
• Leviathan (Corpse, skeleton or other remains)
• Avengers Tower
• 46th Street (Mentioned)
• Midtown School of Science & Technology (First appearance)
• 21st Street
• Queens Community Bank
• Sub Haven (Mentioned)
• Aunt May's Apartment
• Queens Boulevard (Mentioned)
• 48th Street
• Jackson Avenue
• 10th Street
• 43rd Avenue
• Coney Island
• Staten Island
• Statue of Liberty
• New Avengers Facility
• Triskelion (Mentioned)
• Washington Monument
• New Jersey (Mentioned)
• Baltimore (Named only)
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts (Mentioned)
• Fort Sumter, Charleston, South Carolina (Mentioned)
• Oregon (Mentioned)
• Canada (Mentioned)
• Leipzig/Halle Airport (Only on screen as a static image or video record)
• Sokovia (Mentioned)
• Lagos, Nigeria, Africa (Mentioned)
• Saturn (Mentioned)
• Asgard (Named only)
• Chitauri technology
• Spider-Man's Web-Shooters
• Spider-Man's Suit
• Spider-Man's Utility Belt
• Iron Man Armor MK XLVI (Only on screen as a static image or video record)
• Ant-Man's Suit and Helmet (Only on screen as a static image or video record)
• Iron Man Armor MK XLVII (First appearance)
• Arc Reactors
• Tony Stark's Sunglasses
• Captain America's Uniform (Only on screen as a static image or video record)
• Captain America's Shield (Only on screen as a static image or video record)
• Vulture's Wings (First appearance) (Destruction)
• Matter Phase Shifter (First appearance)
• Chitauri Energy Core
• Anti-Gravity Gun (First appearance)
• Blaster rifle
• Sokovia Accords (Mentioned)
• Shocker's Vibro-Shock Gauntlets (First appearance)
• Vibranium (Mentioned)
• Stark independent drone thrusters
• Spider-Tracer (First appearance)
• Spider-Tracer-Tracker (First appearance)
• Spider-Man's Spider-Signal
• Ultron Drones (Head)
• Thor's Magic Belt (Mentioned)
• Iron Man Armor (Hulkbuster 2.0) (Mentioned)
• Captain America's Prototype Shield (Mentioned)
• Vulture drone
• Iron Man Armor MK XLII (Cameo)
• Iron Spider Armor (First appearance) (Unnamed)
• Executive Order 396-B (Mentioned)
• Staten Island Ferry

Following the Battle of New York, Adrian Toomes and his salvage company are contracted to clean up the city, but their operation is taken over by the Department of Damage Control (D.O.D.C.), a partnership between Tony Stark and the U.S. government. Enraged at being driven out of business, Toomes persuades his employees to keep the Chitauri technology they have already scavenged and use it to create and sell advanced weapons. Years later, Toomes is an estabilished black market dealer.

Peter Parker is drafted into the Avengers by Stark to help with an internal dispute, but resumes his studies at the Midtown School of Science and Technology when Stark tells him he is not yet ready to become a full Avenger. Parker quits his school's academic decathlon team to spend more time focusing on his crime-fighting activities as Spider-Man. One night, after preventing criminals from robbing an ATM with their advanced weapons from Toomes, Parker returns to his Queens apartment where his best friend Ned discovers his secret identity. On another night, Parker comes across Toomes' associates Jackson Brice and Herman Schultz selling weapons to local criminal Aaron Davis. Parker saves Davis before being caught by Toomes and dropped in a lake, nearly drowning after becoming tangled in a parachute built into his suit. He is rescued by Stark, who is monitoring the Spider-Man suit he gave Parker and warns him against further involvement with the criminals. Toomes accidentally kills Brice with one of their weapons, and Schultz becomes the new Shocker.

Parker and Ned study a weapon left behind by Brice, removing its power core. When a tracking device on Schultz leads to Maryland, Parker rejoins the decathlon team and accompanies them to Washington, D.C. for their national tournament. Ned and Parker disable the tracker Stark implanted in the Spider-Man suit, and unlock its advanced features. Parker tries to stop Toomes from stealing weapons from a D.O.D.C. truck, but is trapped inside the truck, causing him to miss the decathlon tournament. When he discovers that the power core is an unstable Chitauri grenade, Parker races to the Washington Monument where the core explodes and traps Ned and their friends in an elevator. Evading local authorities, Parker saves his friends, including his fellow classmate and crush Liz. Returning to New York City, Parker persuades Davis to reveal Toomes' whereabouts. Aboard the Staten Island Ferry, Parker captures Toomes' new buyer Mac Gargan, but Toomes escapes and a malfunctioning weapon tears the ferry in half. Stark arrives and helps Parker save the passengers on the ferry. Afterwards, Stark admonishes Parker for his recklessness, reminding him he almost killed dozens of people as well as himself. This also results in Stark confiscating the Spider suit.

Parker returns to his high school life, and eventually asks Liz to go to the homecoming dance with him. On the night of the dance, Parker learns that Toomes is Liz’s father. Deducing Parker's secret identity from Liz's account about him, Toomes threatens retaliation if he interferes with his plans. During the dance, Parker realizes Toomes is planning to hijack a D.O.D.C. plane transporting weapons from Avengers Tower to the team's new headquarters, dons his old homemade Spider-Man suit and races to Toomes' lair. He is first ambushed by Schultz, but defeats him with the help of Ned. At the lair, Toomes destroys the building's support beams and leaves Parker to die. Parker escapes the rubble and intercepts the plane, steering it to crash on the beach near Coney Island. He and Toomes continue fighting, ending with Parker saving Toomes' life after the damaged Vulture suit explodes, and leaving him for the police along with the plane's cargo. Later, Stark offers Parker an even more advanced suit and an invitation to join the Avengers. Parker declines Stark's invitation in favor of remaining a 'friendly neighborhood' Spider-Man and inspires Stark to bring an engagement ring to a press conference where Pepper Potts is present. Upon returning home, Peter sees a brown paper bag on his bed. He opens it and finds the Spider suit, which he puts on in his bedroom just as his Aunt May walks in.

• Tom Holland as Spider-Man / Peter Parker [1] [2]
• Michael Keaton as The Vulture / Adrian Toomes , [3] [4] a "blue-collar sort" who ran a salvaging company and now sells scavenged high-tech weaponry to criminals. [5]
• Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan [6]
• Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts [7]
• Zendaya as Michelle Jones [8] [9]
• Donald Glover as Aaron Davis [10] [7]
• Jacob Batalon as Ned Leeds [11] [12]
• Laura Harrier as Liz Allan [13] [12]
• Tony Revolori as Flash Thompson [13] [12]
• Bokeem Woodbine as Shocker / Herman Schultz [14] [5]
• Tyne Daly as Anne Marie Hoag [4] [7]
• Marisa Tomei as Aunt May Parker [2]
• Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man / Tony Stark , [15] the founder of a new government organization that cleans up the debris left by superheroes. [5]
• Abraham Attah as Abe [16] [7]
• Hannibal Buress as Coach Wilson [17] [18] [7]
• Kenneth Choi as Principal Morita [19] [7]
• Selenis Leyva as Ms. Warren [7]
• Angourie Rice as Betty Brant [20] [7]
• Martin Starr as Mr. Harrington [21] [7]
• Garcelle Beauvais as Doris Toomes [22] [7]
• Michael Chernus as Tinkerer / Phineas Mason [23] [5]
• Michael Mando as Mac Gargan [24] [7]
• Logan Marshall-Green as Shocker / Jackson Brice [3] [25] [7]
• In February 2015, Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures Entertainment issued a joint announcement stating their plans to bring the character of Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe by sharing the film rights, that previously belonged solely to Sony Pictures, in a collaborative process between both studios. The deal with Marvel Studios would allow Spider-Man to exist in and interact with the world of the MCU, while Sony Pictures Entertainment would still finance and distribute any standalone feature of the character (instead of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Marvel's regular film distributor and parent company). Both Marvel Studios President of Production Kevin Feige and Sony Pictures Entertainment Co-Chairman Amy Pascal would serve as producers on the solo film. The incarnation of the character would have no connection to the recently released The Amazing Spider-Man film series . The announcement also indicated that Spider-Man would be introduced in an MCU film (later revealed to be Captain America: Civil War ) prior to appearing in his standalone feature. [29]
• The film was originally scheduled for a July 28, 2017 release, but was moved forward to July 7, 2017. [30]
• The title of the film was revealed at CinemaCon 2016. [2]
• With a worldwide total box office gross of about $880 million, this film became the 6th-highest-grossing film of 2017. [31]
• A title card mistakenly states that the events of this movie happen 8 years after Marvel's The Avengers , which had come out only 5 years prior. Furthermore, given there are mentions to Captain America: Civil War happening six months prior, Homecoming is chronologically in 2016, only four years after The Avengers .
• Two sequels followed, Spider-Man: Far From Home in 2019 and Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021.
• The fanfare that plays over the Marvel Studios logo showcase at the beginning is an updated version of the iconic Spider-Man theme song from the 1967 animated series .
• The film's production title was " The Summer of George ", a reference to a Seinfeld episode of the same name. [32]
• Various appearances of the Midtown School of Science & Technology crest throughout the film reveal that the school was founded in 1962. This is most likely a reference to the year of Spider-Man 's comics debut in Amazing Fantasy #15
• The armed robbery sequence featuring robbers wearing Avengers masks is an homage to a similar sequence from Ultimate Spider-Man #42 .
• The building beside the Thai restaurant Peter and May eat in is shown to be a "Korean Church of Asgard ". [33]
• Donald Glover was the focus of an online campaign in 2010 to have him cast as Spider-Man in the then-upcoming reboot of the franchise, later titled " The Amazing Spider-Man ." The campaign indirectly led to the creation of Miles Morales , a role Glover eventually got to portray in the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man . [34] [35] [36] The role of Aaron Davis (who was Miles' uncle in the comics) in this film was made specifically for Glover in recognition for his influence Miles' creation. Director Jon Watts admitted to Glover that if he didn't play Davis, the character would've been scrapped from the movie entirely. [37]
• The license plate of Davis' car is reads "UCS-M01." This is a reference to Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1 , the first issue that Miles Morales gets to headline the Ultimate Comics Spider-Man series.
• Similarly, the license plate of one of the vehicles on the Staten Island ferry reads "SM2-0563," a reference to Amazing Spider-Man #2 from May 1963. This issue introduces the Vulture and the Tinkerer , both of whom are antagonists in the film.
• After saving Liz from the Washington Monument explosion, Spider-Man greets her hanging upside-down to make sure he is okay. This is most likely an homage to the 2002 Spider-Man film , where Spider-Man and Mary Jane share an upside-down kiss in the rain. The reference is further made explicitly clear when Karen, the A.I. of Peter's suit, advises Peter to kiss her.
• An scrapped idea to delve into Michelle 's backstory was going to show her having nobody to come pick her up after returning from the trip to Washington , with Peter and May offering to give her a ride home. [38]
• The sequence of Spider-Man being trapped under rubble and struggling to get free is an explicit homage to Amazing Spider-Man #33 .
• Besides indicating that Peter had found the hero within himself, the image of Peter seeing a reflection of his face that was half-masked by his Spider-Man persona is a recurring image that appears in Spider-Man comics.
• The shirt that Peter wears when visiting New Avengers Facility is the same shirt Pepper Potts wears when she was attacked by the MK XLII while Tony was sleeping in Iron Man 3 .
• Jona Xiao was cast in an undisclosed role, but did not appear in the final cut of the film. [39]
• The movie opened with Peter's cellphone footage rather than the Vulture's origin story. This prelude was added to place more emphasis on Toomes.
• Peter filmed his heroic feats using a GoPro camera, anonymously posting them on YouTube, and racking up the money from video views. This element was intended to be a modernization of Spider-Man's classic concept of selling his own pictures to the Daily Bugle.
• Aunt May reacted when she walked into Peter's room while he was in his underwear next to Ned, expressing something akin to "No judgment." This line was removed to stay away from any allusions.
• When inquiring about Peter's powers, Ned asked if he produced his webbing organically, as a reference to Sam Raimi's original Spider-Man trilogy, in which Spider-Man's web did sprout from Peter's hands.
• Before it was decided to connect the Vulture with Peter's school life through Liz, Toomes was going to be a teacher at the school, where he secretly crafted his wings.
• Liz's party was originally going to be held at Peter's apartment. While in his bedroom changing into Spider-Man to surprise Liz, Peter left after noticing something criminal going on outside. Peter's classmates burst into his bedroom while he was gone and started going through all of his stuff, finding different toys and action figures he still plays with.
• When Spider-Man stole Flash Thompsons' car, he also demanded Flash to give him his pants just for the sake of petty revenge, throwing them a mile away before driving off.
• Peter was going to consider revealing his secret identity at the press conference when he was going to be introduced as an Avenger, but backed off after realizing that there is a virtue in having a secret identity, an advantage over his fellow superheroes.
• When Happy Hogan talked with Peter Parker in the boys' restroom, he said, "Oh yeah, Tony wanted me to tell you, 'With great power comes... something, I forgot.'" Co-writer Jonathan Goldstein stated this line was scrapped due to being "a little too meta." [40]
• In an early version of the script, Uncle Ben was going to be referenced directly by Aunt May. When Peter is getting ready for homecoming, the wardrobe May gives him would have been explicitly stated to be Ben's clothes. Even though screenwriter John Francis Daley thought it was a nice moment, it was removed, arguing that "If you're going to talk about someone's death, you don't want it to be a throwaway." [32]
• The Spider-Man: One More Day trade paperback released in 2008 (collecting the story of the same name ) includes a statement by Kevin Feige in which he promises to one day put on a Spider-Man movie his favorite moment from the character's history, the scene from Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #35 in which Aunt May walks into Peter's room to discover that he's Spider-Man. [41]

Gallery [ ]

Alternate posters [ ].

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• 80 image(s) from Spider-Man: Homecoming

Links and References

• Spider-Man: Homecoming on IMDB.com
• Spider-Man: Homecoming on AllMovie.com
• Spider-Man: Homecoming on Marvel Cinematic Universe wiki
• Spider-Man: Homecoming on Marvel Movies wiki
• Spider-Man: Homecoming on Spider-Man Films wiki
• Marvel Films
• ↑ Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios Find Their 'Spider-Man' Star and Director Marvel.com . Retrieved on 13 April 2016.
• ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Spider-Man's Next Solo Film Officially Receives Its Title Marvel . Retrieved on 13 April 2016.
• ↑ 3.0 3.1 Kit, Borys (16 June 2016) Logan Marshall-Green in Talks to Join Michael Keaton in 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' (Exclusive) The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved on 16 June 2016.
• ↑ 4.0 4.1 Fleming, Mike Jr. (29 June 2016) Tyne Daly On The Case For ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ Deadline . Retrieved on 29 June 2016.
• ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Truitt, Brian (27 March 2017) Sneak peek: Michael Keaton a flying fiend as everyman 'Spider-Man' villain USA Today . Retrieved on 27 March 2017.
• ↑ Kroll, Justin (1 September 2016) Jon Favreau to Reprise ‘Iron Man’ Role in ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ Variety . Retrieved on 1 September 2016.
• ↑ 7.00 7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 7.06 7.07 7.08 7.09 7.10 7.11 7.12 7.13 Damore, Meagan (23 June 2017) Spider-Man: Homecoming: Gwyneth Paltrow & Jennifer Connelly Confirmed . Retrieved on 25 June 2017.
• ↑ Fleming Jr., Mike (7 March 2016) Zendaya Lands A Lead In Spider-Man Reboot At Sony And Marvel Studios Deadline . Retrieved on 13 April 2016.
• ↑ Buchanan, Kyle (18 August 2016) Zendaya Is Playing an Iconic Spider-Man Role, and There’s a Twist Vulture . Retrieved on 19 August 2016.
• ↑ Kit, Borys (14 June 2016) Donald Glover Joins 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved on 14 June 2016.
• ↑ Strom, Marc (23 July 2016) SDCC 2016: 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' Introduces Its Villain Marvel.com . Retrieved on 24 July 2016.
• ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Romano, Nick (24 July 2016) Spider-Man director confirms Zendaya character name Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved on 24 July 2016.
• ↑ 13.0 13.1 Sneider, Jeff (15 April 2016) 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' Casts Laura Harrier from 'One Life to Live' (Exclusive) The Wrap . Retrieved on 15 April 2016.
• ↑ Kit, Borys (23 June 2016) 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' Finds Another Villain With 'Fargo' Actor The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved on 23 June 2016.
• ↑ Kit, Borys (21 April 2016) Robert Downey Jr. Joins 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' THR . Retrieved on 21 April 2016.
• ↑ 16.0 16.1 Fleming Jr, Mike (21 June 2016) ‘Beasts Of No Nation’ Revelation Abraham Attah Joins ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ Deadline . Retrieved on 21 June 2016.
• ↑ Kroll, Justin (20 June 2016) Hannibal Buress Joins ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ (EXCLUSIVE) Variety . Retrieved on 20 June 2016.
• ↑ Eisenberg, Eric (31 August 2016) Who Hannibal Buress Is Playing In Spider-Man: Homecoming CinemaBlend . Retrieved on 31 August 2016.
• ↑ Busch, Anita (9 June 2016) Kenneth Choi Joins Sony/Marvel's 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' Deadline . Retrieved on 10 June 2016.
• ↑ Ford, Rebecca (6 July 2016) 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' Adds 'Nice Guys' Breakout Angourie Rice (Exclusive) The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved on 6 July 2016.
• ↑ Fleming, Mike (16 June 2016) ‘Silicon Valley’s Martin Starr Joins ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ Deadline . Retrieved on 16 June 2016.
• ↑ 22.0 22.1 Lincoln, Ross A. (30 June 2016) ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ Adds Garcelle Beauvais & Tiffany Espensen; Q’orianka Kilcher Joins ‘Hostiles’ Deadline . Retrieved on 30 June 2016.
• ↑ Fleming, Mike Jr. (10 August 2016) Michael Chernus Joins ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ As The Tinkerer Deadline . Retrieved on 10 August 2016.
• ↑ Kit, Borys (22 June 2016) 'Better Call Saul' Actor Joins 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' (Exclusive) The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved on 22 June 2016.
• ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 Kit, Borys (20 June 2016) 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' Adds Trio of Newcomers (Exclusive) The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved on 20 June 2016.
• ↑ Hipes, Patrick (6 June 2016) Michael Barbieri Joins ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ Deadline . Retrieved on 21 June 2016.
• ↑ Watts, Jon (15 June 2016) What The--?! Michael Barbieri was never playing "a version of or a character based on/similar to" Ganke... Ok, back to work for reals now!!! Twitter . Retrieved on 21 June 2016.
• ↑ Hipes, Patrick (29 July 2016) Geoff Stults Jumps Into ‘Granite Mountain’; Martha Kelly Joins ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ Deadline . Retrieved on 29 July 2016.
• ↑ Sony Pictures Entertainment Brings Marvel Studios Into The Amazing World Of Spider-Man Marvel.com . Retrieved on 13 April 2016.
• ↑ Jumanji' Release Date Pushed, 'Spider-Man' Shifts The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved on 21 June 2016.
• ↑ 2017 Yearly Box Office Results Box Office Mojo . Retrieved on 25 February 2018.
• ↑ 32.0 32.1 Spider-Man: Homecoming writers answer burning questions Entertainment Weekly .
• ↑ UNITBlackArchive (11 July 2017) Did Spider-man Homecoming reveal a new religion taking hold in the MCU Earth? (Look at the window on the Right) [Spoilers because I have to but not really at all ] Reddit . Retrieved on 16 July 2017.
• ↑ Sciretta, Peter (30 May 2010) Donald Glover Campaigns for Spider-Man Audition /Film . Retrieved on 14 June 2016.
• ↑ Sepinwall, Alan (23 September 2010) 'Community' - 'Anthropology 101': R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Find Out What It Means To Me HitFix . Retrieved on 14 June 2016.
• ↑ Truitt, Brian (1 August 2011) A TV comedy assured new Spidey's creator USA Today . Retrieved on 14 June 2016.
• ↑ Pearson, Ben (10 August 2017) Donald Glover Talks 'Han Solo', Plus New Revelations About 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' and 'Community' Slash Film . Retrieved on 11 August 2017.
• ↑ Couch, Aaron (13 July 2019) 'Spider-Man: Far From Home' Team Considered a Donald Glover Cameo The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved on 19 July 2019.
• ↑ McNary, Dave (22 August 2016) Jona Xiao Joins ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ Variety .
• ↑ Polowy, Kevin (13 July 2017) From Pitch to Page to Screen: 9 Ways 'Spider-Man Homecoming' Changed Along the Way Yahoo . Retrieved on 20 July 2017.
• ↑ Matadeen, Renaldo (26 December 2017) Spider-Man: Homecoming Delivered on a Decade-Old Promise by Kevin Feige CBR.com . Retrieved on 7 February 2018.
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Spider-Man: Homecoming Review

It’s certainly been a long road to this point. Fifteen years after Spider-Man made his big-screen debut in Sam Raimi’s original Sony-released film, the webhead is finally headlining his first solo movie set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, following the disappointing performance of Sony’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 . Of course, Spider-Man: Homecoming follows the hero’s scene-stealing (and shield-stealing) appearance in last year’s Captain America: Civil War , in which Tom Holland ( The Impossible ) assumed the role once played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. Yet, despite an initially strong positive reception, it remained to be seen how the friendly neighborhood Marvel icon would fare in his third cinematic interpretation, especially now that he’s tied to an interconnected web (pun intended) of films that already spans nearly a decade.

Thankfully, director Jon Watts ( Cop Car ) brings his indie sensibility to the reboot, which picks up with Holland’s high school sophomore Peter Parker shortly after (and briefly during, thanks to a fun sequence early on) the airport battle in Civil War . Inspired by his newfound mentorship with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and the technology of his tricked-out new suit, Peter has a lofty ambition of joining the Avengers and fulfilling his potential as the world’s newest superhero.

However, the Spider-Man we get in Homecoming is very much a newbie when it comes to the ways of crime-fighting, often causing unnecessary collateral damage and putting innocent lives at risk in his quest to prove himself to his new mentor. So audiences expecting to see a fully formed webslinger on screen may have to wait until the character’s appearance in next year’s Avengers: Infinity War .

The very point of Homecoming , after all, is just how much Peter has to learn about both his own power and, yes, the great responsibility that comes with it. It’s a message that’s never stated flat-out, though (don’t worry, no flashbacks or even a mention of good ol’ Uncle Ben here). None of the previous films have attempted to really showcase the steep learning curve that Peter has ahead of him once he decides to don the suit, save for a single sequence or a quick montage of him exploring his abilities.

Homecoming provides an entire film though for Spider-Man to evolve into the hero we all know and love, and in that regard, it plays up the underdog aspect of the character even moreso than previous depictions. Especially alongside a fully fleshed-out MCU filled with more seasoned superheroes, Homecoming ‘s Spider-Man feels like one we’ve never seen before, effortlessly assuaging concerned audiences who feared the hero’s story would get stale the sixth time around.

Of course, the grander scale of Spider-Man’s story is accompanied by a more intimate side as well. The ongoing conflict between Peter’s personal life has always been a narrative focus for the character, and Homecoming excels here, too. Rather than exclusively using a romance with Gwen Stacy or Mary Jane Watson to serve as a surrogate for Peter’s connection to the real world (though he does have eyes on Laura Harrier’s Liz Allan), the film presents a far richer, more diverse ensemble of supporting characters both within his high school and the New York streets.

Jacob Batalon stands out as Peter’s best friend Ned Leeds, and Zendaya creates an lasting impression as the aloof Michelle, while Marisa Tomei returns as the most youthful Aunt May ever put to film. For the first time, the street-level aspect of Spider-Man’s heroism and the way in which it intertwines with Peter’s daily life feels tangible and more authentic than ever before, lending credence to comparisons between Homecoming and the work of writer/director John Hughes. Plenty of awkward humor worms its way in between the action as well, creating some of the Spider-Man franchise’s most laugh-out-loud bits.

As expected, all the teen angst is accompanied by the requisite villainous plot that Spider-Man needs to disrupt, this time hatched by Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes aka The Vulture. However, what may surprise fans is just how much the hero/villain plot of Homecoming ties into the larger MCU. It’s a bold move no doubt intended to play up the much-anticipated cooperation between Sony and Marvel Studios and boost the film’s box office prospects (hence Downey’s prominence in the marketing), but even though it feels a bit heavy-handed at times, the MCU elements sprinkled throughout Homecoming never threaten to overwhelm the focus on Peter himself. In fact, they open the door for some of the film’s most memorable moments, though one imagines that future Spider-Man movies should probably rein it in a bit now that this version of the hero has been fully established onscreen.

Holland, it should be noted, brings the same affable charm to the character as he did in Civil War . Unlike his predecessors, he actually feels like a high school kid in way over his head, and the presence of Downey and his MCU trappings only emphasizes that fact. Moreover, Keaton’s Vulture presents an imposing enough threat for this undisciplined Spider-Man to face and, thanks to the former Batman and Birdman star’s built-in gravitas, the character is easily a cut above the standard subpar MCU villain.

Even though Keaton could have used a bit more screen time to flesh out his character, Homecoming  wisely opts to develop Peter’s journey, neatly laying the groundwork for both the hero’s continuing evolution in sequels and his role in the greater MCU itself. It may not quite reach the heights of Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 , but Spider-Man: Homecoming emerges as one of the character’s strongest films to date, granting him a clean slate and infinite room to grow.

Welcome home, Spidey.

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Origin-al Sin: What Hollywood Must Learn From 'Spider-Man: Homecoming'

Glen Weldon

Mr. Parker Goes to Washington: Spidey (Tom Holland) scales the Washington Monument in Spider-Man: Homecoming . Columbia Pictures hide caption

Mr. Parker Goes to Washington: Spidey (Tom Holland) scales the Washington Monument in Spider-Man: Homecoming .

Long, long ago, when the Earth was new and ichthyosaurs swam the turbid seas, Iron Man 2 arrived in theaters. [ Ed. Note — Simmer down. It was 2010 .]

It was, most agreed, a disappointment, compared with its predecessor, despite a fun and deeply, deeply squirrelly Sam Rockwell performance. (Remember how he had bronzer on his palms? And no one mentioned it. It was just a character thing? Remember that? That was cool.)

I agreed that it didn't work as well as the original Iron Man , and I said then — declared , really, as I was a younger man, full of moxie, and gumption, and eels — that I knew why. In fact, I developed A Theory. A Grand Unified Theory of Superhero Cinema.

It's the origin, I thought. It's crucial. Origin stories are what draw us in and keep us engaged. They're cinematic road maps, guiding us from here (mundane human existence) to there (a world of costumes, powers, magic, spectacle). Bildungsromans in spandex.

Once you get past the origin story, I thought, what have you got left? Dudes in suits, waling away at each other. Big whoop.

In other words: The origin story is what drives and shapes a superhero franchise, because it grounds all that third act (and sequel) CGI action in the first act world where characters have dreams, and relationships, and have lived lives. Because in that life, something magical happened — this guy got amazing powers! The origin story tells you how it happened and why it happened.

But sequels say only: No, yeah. Guess what? It's still happening.

Think about ancient myths, I would proclaim to anyone who hadn't yet taken their beers and moved down the bar to stare sullenly into the middle distance. Myths are preoccupied with the origins of things, the how and why of the natural world: fire, the seasons, lightning, the stars in the sky. Superheroes are modern-day mythical demigods, they came from somewhere. Origin stories tell us where.

The Theory, Tested

Important reminder: I developed this theory seven years and approximately 392 superhero movies ago. The Marvel Cinematic Universe hadn't yet undergone its big bang, filling all of existence with origin stories, until they became inescapable, unignorable, omnipresent — the static hiss of a kind of narrative background radiation that now pervades the culture.

Iron Man 2 arrived three years after the first Spider-Man franchise concluded and two years before a second Spider-Man franchise would commence. Both kicked off with origin stories.

There have been several origin movies that tanked so hard they killed franchise opportunities, saving us from a universe in which, say, Green Lantern III: Wasting Still More Of Your Time is a thing. And there certainly have, over the years, been sequels that were more successful, cinematically and/or financially, than their predecessors:

• Many say Superman II was better than Superman: The Movie . (I disagree, I prefer the sweep and bombast and myth-building of the Krypton/Kansas stuff in the original to the "must lose his powers to visit bonetown" business in the sequel.)
• There are many who think Batman Returns outshone Batman . (I'm a Schumacher defender, so I have no voice in this debate.)
• X-Men 2 is generally regarded as superior to X-Men . (Story-wise — and on the strength of "Have you tried ... not being a mutant?" — I agree.)
• Spider-Man 2 is clearly superior to Spider-Man , in strict accordance with the Better Villain, Better Film Corollary.
• The Dark Knight > Batman Begins , see above.
• Captain America: Winter Soldier is considered superior to Captain America: The First Avenger. (Don't buy it, personally. I prefer Guns of Navarone Cap to Parallax View Cap.)

But in every other case — and there are a lot more other cases — superhero sequels have lost steam.

So my theory about origin stories had been challenged, but remained, I thought, fundamentally sound.

Until now. Until Spider-Man: Homecoming .

The Theory, Defeated

Spider-Man: Homecoming dispenses with his origin story completely, which is, at this point, a wise move. Given Spidey's status as Marvel's flagship character and his concurrent cultural saturation, it's perhaps even inevitable, because: We know .

We get it. Spider-bite, spider powers, great responsibility. We've, all of us, been there.

And yet! Even without seeing precisely how and why Peter Parker gets from the here of normal life to the there of fantastic, thwippy powers, Tom Holland is eminently, achingly relatable. His Peter is someone in whom we easily see ourselves at our most excited and anxious. Which is the whole secret.

A big reason is Holland himself, of course. He is charmingly awkward in the role, and he both acts like a kid, and looks like one.

But lo! What's that, rising with an epiphanic glow from the smoldering ashes in the burnt-out husk of my Grand Unified Theory of Superhero Cinema? Could it be ... another theory?

A New Theory, Ascendant

You see, there is another reason — a big one — that this new Spidey grabs us and earns our empathy.

Because while Homecoming loses the origin story, it doubles down on another aspect of superhero cinema — one that's featured in every single film that's ever kicked off a superhero franchise and that turns out to be the true secret to their appeal. It's something I hadn't noticed, because while it has been a part of every cinematic superhero origin story, it has always lurked in the shadows.

I thought it was the origin itself — the story logistics that explain where the heroes' powers come from, and why they choose the path they do.

But it's not. It's what comes immediately after.

It's the training montage .

To win our empathy and interest, it's not enough for a superhero to start out like us. We have to see him strive. And struggle. And fail. And start over.

And that is what the training montage does. It mingles delight at the discovery of magical gifts with the hard-won, sometimes brutal knowledge that those gifts must be honed. That it will take work.

In Spider-Man: Homecoming , Peter Parker is forced to relearn everything he knows when he finds himself in the possession of a miraculous, tricked-out new Spidey suit. The trial-and-error (and error, and error) that ensues forms the meat of the film's second act and serves to endear him to us.

Both the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield franchises featured similar scenes in their kickoff movies. The first Iron Man devoted considerable screen time to Tony Stark's learning to fly ... and fall ... and get fire-extinguished by helpful robots. In Ant-Man, Paul Rudd found himself repeatedly overmatched by a door's keyhole. Even the dour Man of Steel admitted a fleeting moment of levity when Superman first took to the sky ... and promptly took a super-header into the frozen tundra.

Behold, then: The New Unified Theory of Superhero Cinema!

Hollywood screenwriters: Forget the how and why of their powers. Show us the halting first steps they take as they attempt to use them. We need to see them training. Striving. Working hard.

Give them their advantages from the get-go. Fine. We get it.

But if you want us to care about them, and care deeply, we need to see them earning those advantages. Through work. And sweat. And by doing that thing that makes them truly universal, endearing, and relatable:

By screwing up.

Correction July 11, 2017

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated when Iron Man 2 came out in relation to the first two Spider-Man franchises.

A Guide to Reading Spider-Man Comics Before Watching The MCU's Homecoming Trilogy

Fans can dive into comics that explore Vulture, Mysterio, the Spider-Verse, and more to help prepare for the Homecoming trilogy's theatrical return!

The MCU Spider-Man trilogy returns to theaters. Tom Holland's Spider-Man is back, so it's time to relive his solo adventures in Spider-Man: Homecoming , Far From Home, and No Way Home . Spider-Man's appearances in Civil War , Infinity War and Endgame round out his MCU appearances, but his own trilogy is extremely solid.

Marvel readers can expand their knowledge and appreciation of the stories told in this Spider-Man trilogy by diving into comics about the Vulture, Mysterio, Spider-Man reading past and future versions of himself, Peter Parker's role in Iron Man and Captain America's civil war and his adventures hopping across the Spider-Verse .

10 Past Spider-Man Meets Future Spider-Man

Peter parker: the spectacular spider-man #301-303 "amazing fantasy" by chip zdarsky, joe quinones, joe rivera & jordan gibson.

Spider-Man fans couldn't believe their eyes when Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield appeared on their movie screens in 2021. The original Spider-Men were back, and their interactions with Tom Holland's Spider-Man were the highlights of Spider-Man: No Way Home .

What a splendid concept, one that Chip Zdarsky used in Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man 's "Amazing Fantasy." The modern Peter Parker travels back in time to team up with his younger self and fight the Green Goblin. The interactions between these two and how Spider-Man has evolved as a superhero will similarly satisfy moviegoers who enjoyed the theatrical Spider-Man trio.

9 The Vulture Wants New York City

Peter parker, the spectacular spider-man #45 by roger stern, marie severin, steve mitchell & glynis wein, 10 best spider-man comic series outside marvel’s 616.

In Spider-Man: Homecoming , the Vulture is intelligent and cunning despite his realistic roots of wanting to provide for his family and protect them from a world of superpowered beings. Michael Keaton fantastically portrayed the Vulture, a breath of fresh air compared to other movie supervillains at the time.

Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #45 presents a more realistic version of the Vulture, who wants to take over New York City's criminal underworld, turning himself into the new Kingpin. His ambitions match those of his MCU counterparts. The Vulture is not just an old man with wings but a real Spider-Man-level threat.

8 Mysterio Traps Spider-Man In Illusions

Amazing spider-man #66-67 by stan lee, john romita sr., don heck & mickey demeo.

Thanks to his illusions and manipulations, Mysterio is one of the funniest Spider-Man villains . Like Batman's Scarecrow, Mysterio can warp people's perceptions of reality. The illusion sequence was one of the best scenes in Spider-Man: Far From Home , perfectly showcasing how deadly Mysterio can be even without superpowers of his own.

Mysterio's appearances in Amazing Spider-Man #66-67 showcase his powers and abilities, trapping Spider-Man in an oversized funhouse. The visuals, like those in Far From Home , were incredible and made for some of the best Spider-Man comic panels of the time.

7 Birth Of The Sinister Six

Amazing spider-man annual #1 by stan lee and steve ditko, 10 best spider-man comic events (that aren’t about peter parker).

Though Spider-Man: No Way Home didn't feature the Sinister Six (by name or number), Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Electro, Lizard and Sandman all teamed up to battle not one, but three Spider-Men. Villain team-ups are always fun and exciting. How will Spider-Man defeat six villains when he usually struggles against one or two?

The first Spider-man annual comic featured the first appearance of the Sinister Six , led by Doctor Octopus. It serves as the template for almost every Sinister Six appearance afterward, featuring a bickering roster of rogues that usually defeat themselves with slight nudges from Spider-Man.

6 Spider-Man Meets Doctor Strange

Amazing spider-man annual #2 by stan lee and steve ditko.

The next Amazing Spider-Man Annual issue featured a team-up between Spider-man and Doctor Strange, two characters co-created by the legendary Steve Ditko. Doctor Strange played such a huge role in Spider-Man: No Way Home . Despite Peter Parker and Stephen Strange's major character differences, the Web-Head and Sorcerer Supreme have teamed up a lot.

In their first adventure together, Spider-Man ends up in dimensions with trippy visuals, and Doctor Strange comes to his rescue. With Spidey and Strange fighting each other in the mirror dimension in the film, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2 seems an appropriate must-read.

5 Spider-Man Chooses Between Captain America & Iron Man

Civil war by mark millar, steve mcniven, dexter vines & morry hollowell, the best spider-man villains created in the past 5 years.

Civil War rocked the Marvel Universe, both in comics and film. In the MCU, Cap and Tony Stark's war resulted in a divided Avengers team that appeared when Thanos and his forces first attacked in Infinity War . The comic Civil War also had lasting ramifications–for Spider-Man especially.

In the comics, Spider-Man revealed his identity to the world (something that also happens at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home ). His family is immediately put in the literal crosshairs of criminals like Kingpin and Bullseye. Reading Civil War is an interesting experience to see where the MCU diverged and what it adapted.

4 The Sinister Six Goes To War Against Spider-Man

Sinister war by nick spencer, mark bagley, andrew hennessy, john dell, andy owens & brian reber.

What's better than one Sinister Six team? How about a half-dozen? Sinister War was large in scale but few in issues, lasting only four. While the narrative was fairly shallow, overshadowed by the main Kindred confrontation occurring in Amazing Spider-Man , it served as an exciting, action-heavy miniseries that provided a lot of fan service.

Villain fought villain as various versions of the Sinister Six went to war with Spider-Man caught in the middle. Spider-Man: No Way Home gave viewers a taste of a "Sinister War" event when Electro turned on Doctor Octopus or Sandman helped Spidey in the end.

3 Spider-Man Makes His Last Stand

Amazing spider-man #500 by j. michael straczynski, john romita jr., john romita sr., scott hanna & avalon studios, spider-man's most twisted clone goes rogue in marvel's new comics this week.

In Spider-Man: No Way Home , Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker spoke of growing vengeful and reckless after Gwen Stacy's death. The Marvel Comics 616 Spider-Man similarly witnessed an older Spider-Man with fewer restrictions and a blurred line of power and responsibility.

In the centennial Amazing Spider-Man #500, Spider-Man witnessed a potential future version where the older Spider-Man made his "last stand" against the police. Last Stand Spider-Man showed Peter the value of compassion, just as Andrew's Spider-Man helped show Tom Holland a better path.

2 Spider-Man Enters The Spider-Verse

Spider-verse by dan slott, giuseppe camuncoli, olivier coipel, wade von grawbadger, cam smith, john livesay & justin ponsor.

Dan Slott's epic Spider-Verse comic event opened the floodgates for Spider-Man comics to explore the multiverse. Since then, comics like Edge of Spider-Verse , films like Across the Spider-Verse, and the MCU's own No Way Home have explored multiversal Spider-Men.

Tom Holland teaming up with Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire on the big screen was a real treat for fans. The first Spider-Verse comic provides so much fan service, featuring appearances of nearly every version of Spider-Man. Spider-Verse is definitely perfect reading material to prime readers for the concept of multiple Spider-Men.

1 "One Moment In Time" Changed Everything For Peter Parker

Amazing spider-man #638-641 by joe quesada, danny miki, paolo rivera & richard isanove.

"One Moment in Time" was the sequel to "One More Day," two divisive Spider-Man comic events that forever changed Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson's lives. "One Moment in Time" presented Spider-Man's attempts to make the world forget that Peter Parker was Spider-Man. This change to reality resulted in the Brand New Day era of Amazing Spider-Man , which fans either love or hate.

In Spider-Man: No Way Home , Peter similarly asks Doctor Strange for help with his identity crisis. The biggest difference between "One Moment in Time" and No Way Home is that Mary Jane actually remembers Peter Parker and his Spider-Man identity in the comics, whereas MCU Spider-Man is more alone than ever.

Spider-Man: Homecoming

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Spider-Man: Far from Home

Following the events of Avengers: Endgame (2019), Spider-Man must step up to take on new threats in a world that has changed forever.

Spider-Man: No Way Home

With Spider-Man's identity now revealed, Peter asks Doctor Strange for help. When a spell goes wrong, dangerous foes from other worlds start to appear, forcing Peter to discover what it truly means to be Spider-Man.

clock This article was published more than  6 years ago

‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ is a refreshing reboot of a familiar superhero story

In “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” Tom Holland’s 15-year-old webslinger, Peter Parker, is more mathlete than athlete, a geeky high school sophomore whose beanpole physique is as likely to be sheathed in the iconic, form-fitting red-and-blue bodysuit of comic-book lore as a baggy T-shirt on which two cartoon molecules are shown conversing with each other. (“I lost an electron,” says one. “Are you positive?” replies the other.)

Although not quite pimple-faced or pencil-necked, this uber-dweeb anchors an authentic, refreshingly nerdy and high-spirited reboot of the well-worn Marvel franchise, one in which the obsessions of a certain branch of male adolescence — girls, grades and geeking out on “Star Wars” Lego sets — compete for the attention of its hero with the underground arms dealing by a supervillain named Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton, looking more like his tortured, middle-aged “Birdman” character than his earlier outings as Batman).

It’s “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” meets “The Dark Knight.”

Spider-Man doesn’t swing from a Manhattan skyscraper in his new movie.

In a breath of fresh air, “Homecoming” opens with a prologue that, despite the movie’s origin-story contours, has nothing to do with getting bitten by a radioactive spider, or the catalyzing death of Peter’s Uncle Ben. (Thank you, screenwriters — all six of you.) Peter’s guardian Aunt May is still in the picture, but, as played by a frisky Marisa Tomei, she’s a far cry from versions of the dowager aunt delivered by Rosemary Harris and Sally Field in previous “Spider-Man” versions.

Set in the aftermath of the Battle of New York — a.k.a. The Incident — depicted in 2012’s “The Avengers,” the opening of “Homecoming” introduces us to Keaton’s Toomes: an engineer who gets fired from his job rebuilding the devastated city, but not before he manages to furtively salvage some extraterrestrial weapons technology left lying around in the wake of the alien attack.

Fast-forward to the present day, when Toomes is now a peddler and designer of illegal high-tech guns, flitting above the nighttime underworld of New York in a vulturelike flying apparatus that looks like it was co­designed by Leonardo da Vinci and Doctor Octopus. In short order, Peter, who had his first small taste of superheroics fighting alongside Tony Stark’s Team Iron Man in last year’s “Captain America: Civil War” — and who has grown bored with recovering stolen bicycles in his Queens neighborhood — gets wind of Toomes’s black-market business, and he tries to put a stop to it.

Peter is aided and hampered in this ad­ven­ture by a fancy suit designed by Tony (Robert Downey Jr.), who cautions his young protege against getting too deep into crime-fighting before he’s seasoned. As part of what Peter unironically refers to as his “internship” with Stark Industries, Tony has disabled some of the most powerful features of the Spidey costume, setting it to what the suit’s Jarvislike voice assistant calls “training-wheels mode.”

In the very fun ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming,’ Marvel Studios makes the difference

The film, for much of the first two acts, takes itself just about that unseriously, maintaining a jokey, self-aware tone that is nicely evocative of the original comics. That tone is epitomized by Martin Starr’s wryly deadpan turn as the faculty adviser to Peter and his fellow participants in the academic decathlon that takes them on a field trip to Washington, D.C., where one of the film’s thrilling action set pieces — involving a rescue from an elevator inside the Washington Monument — takes place. Another amusing running gag features corny video PSAs that Peter and his classmates are forced to listen to, featuring inspirational messages from Captain America (Chris Evans). “I’m pretty sure this guy is a war criminal now,” cracks the school’s coach and detention monitor (Hannibal Buress), offering a sly allusion to the much-criticized collateral violence of some of Marvel’s recent films.

As youth-oriented and lightly larky as “Spider-Man: Homecoming” may be, the focus of the film — whose title refers to the school dance around which much of the narrative takes place — can’t stay small forever. Like its protagonist, who seems to be itching for a growth spurt of his own, the movie ultimately gets a little big for its breeches, in a mayhem-and-effects-soaked climax that suffers from many of the excesses of other Marvel movies.

That is to be expected, and yet it does not dim the bright and breezy story that precedes it. Marvel fans know this by now, but stay for the credits — and I do mean all of them — for a postlude that will deflate any lingering feelings of undue pomp and circumstance.

PG-13.  At area theaters. Contains sci-fi action violence, some strong language and brief suggestive comments. 133 minutes.

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How ‘no way home’ redefines spider-man.

Over six appearances as Peter Parker, Tom Holland has redefined what it means to be the hero — and recontextualized the guilt that comes along with it.

By Richard Newby

Richard Newby

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[This story contains spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home .]

“With great power there must also come great responsibility.” That line, even in all of its many variations over the years, has always been at the core of Spider-Man. Consistently they’ve been the words, delivered by Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben, that have begun the journey of Spider-Man, that is, until Spider-Man: No Way Home .

Jon Watts’ latest installment of the Tom Holland -led Spider-Man franchise is a joyous and sincerely moving celebration of three generations of Spider-Man films, and there is plenty, and will continue to be plenty, to talk about in terms of how it brings back familiar faces, deftly navigates nostalgia with genuine payoff, and sets up the future. While I usually tend to look ahead in the aftermath of these Marvel Cinematic Universe event films, I want to break that tradition and look back at how the Spider-Man Home trilogy broke new ground with the character for a contemporary generation, told the story of a boy’s growth into manhood, and ultimately built a better Spider-Man.

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Comic book purists always fear change, or at least change that isn’t sparked by their own concepts of what those changes should be. Holland’s Spider-Man has always been widely beloved, but with Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) there have been certain sticking points that fans, particularly those who grew up with Sam Raimi and Marc Webb’s iterations of the character, didn’t vibe with. There was concern over the fact that Peter didn’t struggle with money, which as a high-school student on an academic scholarship felt like a non-issue. And there was irritation over his adversaries’ ties to Stark, which felt more like an acknowledgment of how Stark Tech shaped the world, akin to Microsoft or Apple, but didn’t diminish their grudge against Spider-Man. But the major point of contention was the absence of Uncle Ben and his famous line. There was a notion that his death didn’t define Peter and that it was Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) who led to Peter becoming a hero. I think this reading on Peter’s journey in the MCU is accurate, but it’s a feature rather than a flaw.

Iron Man is Spider-Man’s guiding light initially, which is the very thing that has led some to refer to this iteration of Peter Parker as “Iron Boy Jr.” and claim the films are Marvel Studios’ attempt to make another Iron Man franchise, instead of Spider-Man . On that point, I disagree, even more so after the events of No Way Home . None of the other Spider-Man movies featured a whole world of heroes, but in the MCU Peter has grown up seeing men in metal suits, gods, and resurrected war heroes fight to protect the world, which had to have created inherent differences in his character and his perception of the world. It makes sense that a kid who suddenly found himself with powers would aspire to be a superhero, rather than a wrestler, and have certain ideas of nobility already ingrained within him without need to be responsible for his Uncle Ben’s death.

When we’re reintroduced to Spider-Man in Homecoming , shortly after the events of Captain America: Civil War (2016), Peter Parker is struggling with what his role is in a world full of Avengers. He aspires to be one of Earth’s mightiest heroes, not unlike Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s Spider-Man aspired to be on the most popular team of his era, the Fantastic Four, in the first issue of his self-titled series in 1963. He’s been given all the tools to be an Avenger thanks to his Stark tech-enabled suit, but he has none of the patience or lived experience to truly use that tech in the best way. The ferry fiasco, after which Tony takes his suit away and says, “If you’re nothing without the suit, then you shouldn’t have it,” is Peter’s first real lesson of responsibility on a larger stage than he’s ever been before. This lesson isn’t one that separates Peter from being a hero or being selfish, money-obsessed showboat as the comic book origin and previous films suggested. It’s what makes him a hero who has to rely on his own ingenuity. It’s key that this lesson come from Iron Man because he was forced to learn the same one in a cave in Afghanistan. Peter has his own cave moment, when buried under rubble after a brush with the Vulture, and dressed in the Spidey sweatsuit he made himself he says, “Come on, Spider-Man,” urging himself to be the hero he knows he can be without all the fancy trappings.

Homecoming ends with Peter turning down a spot on the Avengers and feeling comfortable with his choice to look out for the little guy and be the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. But that’s all easier said than done. In the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame (2019), Peter Parker is forced to once again question his place in the world during Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019). He runs into trouble with Stark tech that has been left to him, this time in the form of the drone deployment system E.D.I.T.H. Is he being forced to re-learn the same lesson he learned in Homecoming ? I’d argue no because the context is different.

Now, rather than having to figure out his place in a world of Avengers, he has to figure out his place in a world without them, while also dealing with the fact that he died and came back five years later, and the planet is searching for the next hero to be its world-saving savior. Peter is faced not only with his own mortality, but that of his idol, Iron Man, a reminder that just because he has powers, he is not invincible, something all adolescents must learn at some point, and something Quentin Beck, Mysterio ( Jake Gyllenhaal ), who fancies himself an immortal artist, fails to comprehend for himself. It could certainly be argued that Peter’s choices, to go on summer vacation, to use E.D.I.T.H. and then pass it off to someone else, are all irresponsible decisions. But that is what makes Peter’s journey in this trilogy compelling and believable. He’s a 16-year-old. Of course he’s not going to always be the exemplary figure of responsibility. This is Spider-Man on a learning curve, a process he shares with most other MCU heroes who become healthier and better versions of themselves through the franchise. While this perspective on the character is not a direct adaptation of the character Lee and Ditko created, it values the spirit of what they aimed for: to approach these characters as humans first and super-beings second.

Fact is, the world in which Watts’ Spider-Man films take place isn’t the world of 1962 and our concepts of what being a hero and what growing out of adolescence mean are different. Power and responsibility aren’t fixed ideas, certainly not for a teenager, nor are they lessons learned and nailed to an individual in an instant. This is not to slight Lee or Ditko in any way, but their idea of a 16-year-old is very much born of the ideals of two men who served during World War II and lived in a time in which children were expected, often without question, to share the values of their elders. In the comics, Peter is burdened to live by Uncle Ben’s singular mantra, at great cost to his personal life and happiness. Spider-Man becomes a cross to bear in some cases, rather than an identity desired.

I often reflect on a line in Spider-Man 2 (2004) where, in a dream sequence, Peter (Tobey Maguire) tells Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson), “I can’t live your dreams anymore. I want a life of my own.” Raimi’s Spider-Man films are very clearly situated in the ’60s interpretation of the character, so this request of Peter to live his own life is positioned as a selfish, though understandably human desire. Peter’s chat with Uncle Ben parallels Christ’s conversation with God in the garden of Gethsemane just before his arrest and crucifixion in which The Bible states he said, “My father, if it is possible, let this cup pass me by.” The Christ parallels are numerous in Spider-Man 2 , including a shot of Peter being held up by the subway passengers he saved with his body in the position of Christ on the crucifix.

But must Peter Parker be a Christ figure and bear the weight of Spider-Man as a cross? Should Spider-Man exist, cost Peter numerous personal relationships, including his wife and child, because of a mistake he made as a teenager, and the seemingly infallible Ben Parker? This is something contemporary comics have sought to address, most recently in Nick Spencer’s run on The Amazing Spider-Man , in which the villain Kindred, a resurrected Harry Osborn, prodded Peter over: Has Peter’s self-righteousness of being Spider-Man made up for what it’s cost himself those around him? Is Spider-Man a god, demon, or simply a man living with tremendous trauma, leading him to make unhealthy life choices?

Power and responsibility, and their relationship to each other become a course learned throughout the Spider-Man Home trilogy, each time taking on different contexts and leaving Peter to face different repercussions and have time in which to process them. And this brings us to No Way Home in which Peter reluctantly agrees to try to cure a collection of Spider-Man villains from the multiverse on behalf of his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei). He tells her that they aren’t his responsibility, and that looking out for his girlfriend, MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) and ensuring they are able to go on with their lives are his priorities. May reprimands Peter and reminds him that helping people is who they are. Just as it seems Peter might be successful in curing this cross-dimensional baddies, tragedy strikes when Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) sinks into his Green Goblin persona, destroying the cures and ultimately killing Aunt May. In her dying moments, it is May who delivers the iconic Spider-Man mantra. If it seems as though Peter is hearing these words for the first time, it’s because he is.

Rather than have Spider-Man’s origin as a hero begin with the “with great power comes great responsibility” line, his origin story, his training concludes with it. Those words and the death of Aunt May mark the end of his childhood, and segue into a more mature Spider-Man. What’s important about this revision of events that every Spider-Man fan knows by heart is that Peter gets this final lesson in responsibility not because he did the wrong thing, but because he did the right thing. He isn’t guilty of Aunt May’s death, and by removing that guilt it allows Spider-Man to continue to be Peter Parker’s choice, rather than a burden, or the fulfillment of someone else’s dream.

I believe this will lead to Peter Parker having a healthier relationship with his Spider-Man persona because the role isn’t his punishment. What’s more is that Watts, and screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, drive home the idea that May’s death and delivery of those words isn’t the same as Uncle Ben’s to the other two Spider-Men (Maguire and Andrew Garfield) who come to Peter’s aid. It’s not as though Peter being responsible for Ben’s death made them better Spider-Men as both of these Variants of Peter admit they’ve dealt with their fair share of darkness, with Garfield’s iteration admitting he stopped pulling his punches, and forgot the Peter Parker side of himself, resulting in the deaths of his adversaries, and Maguire’s version admitting that things were still complicated between him and Mary Jane and that he was still “trying to do better.”

There’s a healing moment across three generations of Spider-Men as they all deal with the fact that there is no perfect version of themselves who made all the right choices. “With great power comes great responsibility” is a process which there is no right way to find. But it’s made clear that for three Spider-Men, who all wish they had done something differently, holding on to guilt and grief doesn’t make the mantra stronger or more noble. In having the chance to cure others they cure themselves, emerging vindicated as better heroes and better people.

In the epilogue of Spider-Man: No Way Home , Peter visits May’s grave, which is notable in the fact that there is no Uncle Ben beside her, lending further credence to the fact that Ben may not have been someone Peter even knew, and didn’t shape his journey as Spider-Man in the same way. It’s refreshing to see Peter Parker get back to the basics of the character at the end of the film, a poor adult in a crappy New York apartment, with a homemade costume, and content, because of the lessons he learned across three films from a superhero idol who initially seemed so different from him, from two other versions of himself who solidified for him what it means to be Spider-Man, and from Aunt May who not only got to raise Peter Parker but Spider-Man as well, leading him to go off in the world and continue her legacy of helping those who need it most.

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Spider-Man 4 Sees Holland's MCU Hero Team Up With Venom To Face Kingpin In Exciting Marvel Sequel Art

• Spider-Man 4 fan art depicts Holland's Spidey in a symbiote suit against Kingpin, hinting at a new direction for the hero.
• Peter's fight against major threats like Vulture and Mysterio sets the stage for a grounded Kingpin villain in the next installment.
• The potential clash between Kingpin and Spider-Man in MCU Phase 5 could bring iconic comic rivalries to life in the movies.

New Marvel Cinematic Universe fan art pits Tom Holland's web-slinger against Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin for Spider-Man 4 . The Spider-Man: No Way Home ending marked a new beginning for Holland's version of Peter Parker, with the world no longer knowing who is underneath that mask. As Spider-Man 4 is in active development, the world is patiently waiting to witness the next chapter of Holland's MCU hero.

While the MCU audience waits for updates on Spider-Man 4 , AkiTheFull shared new fan art with Holland's web-crawler donning the infamous symbiote costume, following the cliffhanger at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home . For his opponent in this scenario of Spider-Man 4 , the symbiote-possessed Peter is facing D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. Kingpin .

The version of Peter's symbiote suit is heavily based on the iteration that was featured in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 video game. Even though it has yet to be confirmed if Kingpin will be in Spider-Man 4 , D'Onofrio has shared in numerous interviews that he wants to take on Holland's character at some point.

10 Ways Spider-Man 4 Could Be Better Than Tom Holland's First MCU Spider-Man Trilogy

Why kingpin needs to be the main spider-man 4 villain.

Time will tell when Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures will actually start shooting Spider-Man 4 , but there are a lot of reasons why Kingpin should be the central antagonist in Holland's next installment regardless of when it's set. Throughout Holland's Spider-Man trilogy , Peter has gone up against major threats like Vulture and Mysterio. Spider-Man: No Way Home took things to a whole new level, as the hero was then tasked with facing supervillains from across the multiverse via Andrew Garfield and Tobey Magure's franchises.

However, for Spider-Man 4 , it is time for the MCU to allow Peter to focus on being the actually friendly neighborhood superhero that he is known to be in the comics. Having a grounded villain like Kingpin would be key here, especially as he is becoming a powerful figure again in New York would allow Spider-Man 4 to deal with the future of his own city. As Wilson's power is rising in the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again TV show , Peter could be dealing with the fallout of the Disney+ series, especially if Kingpin ends up becoming mayor of New York.

There have been signs that Marvel's Devil's Reign - the arc where Kingpin makes superheroes outlawed in New York - could be heading to the MCU, which may be where Daredevil: Born Again and Spider-Man 4 come to play major points in Phase 5. That is why Spider-Man 4 should invest in Kingpin as the movie's main enemy, while also finally allowing an iconic rivalry to come to life in the MCU. Hopefully, there will be more news on Spider-Man 4 before the year is over, with production ideally starting later in 2024.

Spider-Man Homecoming 4

Spider-Man: Homecoming 4 is the first sequel to the MCU's Spider-Man trilogy starring Tom Holland as the titular wall-crawler. After wiping his identity for the public's memory in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Peter Parker continues his crime-fighting adventures without the aid of Iron Man technology or the support of his former allies.

Studio(s) Pascal Pictures, Marvel Studios, Columbia Pictures

Distributor(s) Sony

Cast Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Tom Holland

Rating Not Yet Rated

Genres Superhero, Action, Adventure

Franchise(s) Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man

prequel(s) Spider-Man: Far From Home, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: No Way Home

Source: AkiTheFull /Instagram